In 1513, the Spanish invader Vasco NuƱez de Balboa massacred 40 indigenous Panamanian Two-Spirit people by feeding them alive to his war dogs.Ā
āI saw a devilish thing,ā Spanish colonialist Alvar NuƱez Cabeza de Vaca wrote in the sixteenth century: āSinful, heinous, perverted, nefarious, abominable, unnatural, disgusting, lewdā¦ā
ā¦Antonio de la Calancha, a Spanish official in Lima, wrote that during Vasco NuƱez de BalboaĀ“s expedition across Panama, Balboa āsaw men dressed like women; Balboa learnt that they were sodomites and threw the king and forty others to be eaten by his dogs, a fine action of an honorable and Catholic Spaniard.ā [X]
What is often overlooked about this massacre is the monumental weight of the event, it shook the continent.Ā
This was one of the first catastrophic events of colonization, a direct and brutal declaration of spiritual war, moving like a shockwave ahead of the physical war.
This was BECAUSE they were TWO-SPIRIT.
Within decades, traveling by foot thousands of miles, news of this direct attack on two-spirit people spread all the way up into what is now called North America. This was a culturally devastating threat for many nations, as they viewed their two-spirit relatives and leaders as a divine connection to, and sacred guidance from, the Creator.Ā Ā
Describing his first trip down the Mississippi in the seventeenth century, Jesuit Jacques Marquette chronicled the attitudes of the Illinois and Nadouessi to the Two-Spirits. āThey are summoned to the Councils, and nothing can be decided without their advice. Finally, through their profession of leading and Extraordinary life, they pass for Manitous, ā that is to say, for Spirits, ā or persons of Consequence.ā
French missionary Joseph Francois Lafitau: āThey believe they are honoredā¦ā he wrote in 1724, āthey participate in all religious ceremonies, and this profession of an extraordinary life causes them to be regarded as people of a higher orderā¦
Even before seeing European invaders with their own eyes, many tribes knew of this massacre and began to ignore the two-spirit qualities in their own children, in the hopes of protecting sacred people and hiding them from invading attention. Within 200 years of this massacre, two-spirit cultures across the continent had largely gone underground, or they had hidden traditional knowledge from their own youth out of fear.Ā
This spiritual rift between the people and their two-spirit youth only deepened with the forced assimilation of boarding schools, which began detaining indigenous children 347 years after the massacre.
The termĀ āTwo-Spiritā was coined in the 90ā²s inter-tribally, in the spirit of solidarity between native nations, to decolonize their internalized views of gender/sexuality and once again embrace two-spirit people. However, many are still advocating within their own tribes for recognition and respect.Ā
āTwo-Spiritā is an umbrella term, similar to āLGBTQ+ā; the meaning is entirely dependent on the individualās culture to define. For some nations itās gender based, others itās sexuality based, and for many a mixture of both. But for all nations with two-spirit people, it was a cultural role that went above and beyond gender or sexuality and into the realm of a blessing to the people - of Creatorās mysterious divine diversity.
In many nations 2S people held esteemed and sacred roles within traditional society, such as providing insight and guidance to medicine men or spiritual leaders, adopting orphans and the elders without family into their houses,Ā marriage counsellors and matchmakers, being legendary artists and warriors, and being highly desirable as lovers or partners because of their status and divine power. In my own tribe, mixĆ³ge were considered a blessing upon the people from Creator, a symbol of a healthy, harmonious and complete nation.
Balboa is still remembered and venerated in Panama as a heroic explorer.Ā
āBalboa is best remembered in Panama, where many streets, businesses, and parks bear his name. There is a stately monument in his honor in Panama City (a district of which bears his name) and the national currency is called the Balboa. There is even a lunar crater named after him.ā
Itās Native American Heritage Month AND recently Trans Day of Remembrance. I hope yaāll share this and recognize the gravity of this inherited trauma for Two-Spirit people.Ā
2087
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